1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monitoring device and a method therefor, and more particularly, to a device for divisionally displaying monitored areas photographed by a plurality of monitoring-cameras on a single screen, and a method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Arts
In general, monitoring systems such as a closed circuit television (CCTV) system, several areas to be monitored are photographed by a plurality of cameras, and the photographed images are displayed on a plurality of monitors.
In such monitoring systems, a screen displayed on the monitor usually keeps showing motionless pictures until a moving object appears on the screen. Since an operator has to watch the motionless pictures for a long time, he or she easily feels bored and may neglect his or her work. Thus, two or more operators may be required for enhancing the monitoring efficiency.
Meanwhile, in order to reduce the number of monitors for displaying image signals photographed in a monitoring system, techniques of screen division have been employed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,367 to Sam P. Hong and entitled System For Divisionally Displaying Plural Images On A Screen is one such system, wherein four cameras supply video signals to one monitor and the screen of that monitor is divided into four sections for displaying the images provided by the cameras simultaneously. In such a system the screen is divided into several sub-screens each on which image signals photographed by a corresponding number of camera is displayed. In such systems, however, in order to display images from more than four cameras it becomes necessary to divide the screen into smaller image areas, thus monitoring efficiency will be lowered.